It’s been a day* of doom and gloom for New Zealand’s mainstream media, despite a landmark ruling in favour of media diversity. After several delays since its draft decision last November, the Commerce Commission released a long-anticipated final decision on Fairfax Media and NZME’s merger application, rejecting it on the basis of unprecedented media concentration. The merger would have seen the two companies join forces to fight global media giants like Facebook and Google, who they say are inhaling a fair chunk of the New Zealand media market’s advertising revenue pie.